Six days and five nights
D1: 12:35-15:55 3U6968 Ningbo to Chengdu Tianfu Later on, I learned that Shuangliu is closer to the city center, and there are also direct bullet trains to Sanxingdui. Remember to buy a ticket to Shuangliu. I was also surprised to be served a spoon of Lao Ganma sauce by a stewardess or a steward on Chenghang Airlines' flights.
17:07-17:34 G8730 Tianfu International Airport Station—Chengdu East (The airport has a high-speed rail station, transfer from high-speed rail to high-speed rail. I was worried about not having enough time to transfer at Chengdu East before departure, so I kept watching videos on Xiaohongshu to review. Those who bought tickets for the Shuangliu Airport don't need to go through the trouble of transferring to high-speed rail. Fortunately, the plane arrived early that day, and I changed it to the previous flight. It turned out that Chengdu East is indeed very large, and we walked smoothly, taking more than 20 minutes to reach the check-in counter.)
17:56-18:14 D1966 Chengdu East to Guanghan North (There are two high-speed railway stations near the Sanxingdui, one is Guanghan Station and the other is Sanxingdui Station, both not far from Sanxingdui, with Guanghan North being even closer) After getting off the train, I took a taxi to the hotel, Liuxi Lakeview Hotel, although it's called a hotel, it feels more like a guesthouse. There aren't many rooms, but they are relatively clean with a lake view. The kids were very happy watching Minions on the room's projector. Another advantage is that many recommended takeout foods from online can be ordered here. After a day of walking, I ordered Yongji Dry Pot, a famous local snack in Guanghan. The spicy dumplings are indeed fragrant; the steamed buns have thin skin and savory meat, which is very friendly to those who don't like spicy food; the Liao Zao is a bit like the taste of Ningbo, and it's quite good; the Gold Thread Noodles were a bit of a disappointment, a bit greasy, but many online say they are delicious, I don't know if it's because I didn't eat them on the spot; the Ye'er Ba is a bit like Ningbo's Qingtuan, but the filling inside is spicy meat, which I can't quite accept. The dry pot restaurant is indeed good, I ordered the glutinous rice duck feet and wings, which were very soft and tender, but my companions were not used to the spicy flavor, and I was too tired to eat after eating alone.
There is a night market in the north of Guanghan, the Luo City Night Market, I originally wanted to go for a stroll and have some late-night snacks, but unfortunately, I couldn't move and couldn't eat, so I didn't go and felt a bit regretful.
D2: Sanxingdui + Head to Jiuzhaigou
The hotel breakfast was a bit simple, just boiled eggs, milk, and a small bag of bread. I also ordered Liu Douhua's takeout, but I'm not used to the spicy flavor of Douhua and the meat buns with spicy filling. The sweet sesame Douhua was 勉强 acceptable. It turned out that I shouldn't have complained about the hotel breakfast, as I was a bit hungry when waiting for the high-speed train at noon and ended up eating everything. The Sanxingdui Museum opens at 8:30 am, so we got up at 7:50, had breakfast, packed up and checked out, took a taxi to the Sanxingdui Museum, and stored our luggage at the service center around 8:50. We first visited the second floor, then the first floor. There were few people when we took photos of the divine tree on the second floor, but it was crowded on the first floor. After leaving the exhibition hall, we wandered around the cultural and creative products, and the kids wrote postcards for their friends at the Sanxingdui Post Office.
Walked until 11 o'clock, took a taxi to Sanxingdui, took the train C4022 Chengdu East—Songpan, departing from Sanxingdui Station at 12:16. Bought a few more stops, afraid of not being able to get a ticket. At the same time, there was also a train from Sanxingdui to Huanglong Jiuzhaigou, but didn't get one. For lunch, I ordered a high-speed train box meal, which was average. At the time, I regretted not going to the Guanghan Night Market the night before, where I could have bought more to eat on the way, such as the roasted duck and green bean cake recommended by netizens.
Songpan Station—Jiuzhaigou Valley Entrance Hotel, there is a direct train, book in advance on the WeChat Mini Program Jiulv Yuexing, the total journey takes more than two hours, about half an hour shorter than driving from Huanglong Jiuzhaigou Station to Jiuzhaigou. Don't underestimate this half an hour; the map says it's a national highway, but it's actually up and down the mountain roads, with an altitude of about 3500 meters going up and down, the highest reaching 3900 meters. The only time the child said he felt uncomfortable during the whole journey was here, I suspect he had altitude sickness, lying flat on the seat, and then it was better when the altitude decreased. Therefore, it is better to buy tickets to Huanglong Jiuzhaigou Station, as it has fewer mountain roads.
The express train should be disembarked at a location near the hotel, then walk for a hundred to two hundred meters, check-in at the hotel will be around 4:30. I booked the Intelligent Holiday Hotel, it is clean and hygienic, close to the scenic area. The next morning, it takes ten minutes to walk there, and breakfast is simple. When making the itinerary, Xiaohongshu recommended the Quanshi Hotel, saying that the earlier the booking, the better, and the price will increase later. When I booked, it was 600 yuan per night, so I didn't make a purchase.
Dined at the "Old Soldier Barbecue" in the evening, recommended by the official website, trustworthy, indeed delicious, specializing in lamb ribs, a bit expensive, but when it's delicious, one doesn't chase cost-effectiveness. Beef skewers and barley cakes are also delicious. Remember to make a reservation before noon, as without one, you won't be able to eat even if you arrive. While waiting, I saw some young ladies who arrived without a reservation and were ruthlessly refused. I called for a taxi while waiting at the high-speed railway station, and it wasn't difficult to make the call. These days, I saw that the shop owner's wife will close the store for a rest starting November 30th and will reopen after the New Year, which is also a bit capricious. After eating, I packed up early at the hotel and went to sleep to prepare for the fierce battle the next day.
D3 Jiuzhaigou one day, entered the valley before 9 o'clock, and left the scenic area after 5 o'clock. Did a lot of research before going, looking at the pictures made me a bit visually exhausted. On the bus, there were explanations on how to go and how to take the bus. If there's time, we can hike more, otherwise we can take the bus. We thought about which attractions we wanted to visit the most and made some choices. With a clear self-awareness, we didn't hike easily, took the whole journey by bus, and walked over 20,000 steps. We went to the right line, from top to bottom, Arrow Bamboo Sea, Five-Flower Lake, Pearl Beach, Mirror Lake, Ruoerlang Waterfall, Shuzhengzhai, basically took the bus up and down. We hiked from Fire Lake to Panjing Lake, gave up the attractions on the left, and hiked a bit more when we felt we still had time. Overall, the scenery is beautiful, but there are too many people, and the weather is not good, no sun, the deep lakes are dark, and they are much different from the beautiful pictures online, I was even stunned. The shallow lakes are still nice, and the snow scenery is praised. Lunch was eaten with self-heating food in between mountains and water. There are also catering services in the scenic area, at the Nuorilang Center, but it's a bit of a waste of time to go there specifically.
D4 Yellow Dragon Scenic Area one-day tour + return to Chengdu
Huanglong didn't plan to go at first, but went nearby instead. It was still worth it after seeing it. We took the cable car and saw snow mountains, high mountains, and blue ice. Blue ice is a landscape only available in winter at Jiuzhaigou. It was a surprise to see it at the Five-color Pool of Huanglong. I bought the tickets in advance half a month on the official website, including the tickets, cable car to the mountain, and sightseeing bus. The sightseeing bus was in trial operation for one day with 5,000 tickets, and it was necessary to rush during the peak season. That day, we could still buy tickets on the spot. I signed up for a one-day tour on Ctrip, which didn't include a guide and only covered the transportation from Jiuzhaigou to the Huanglong Scenic Area and from the scenic area to the high-speed rail station. We took a bus at 8 o'clock at the designated location at the entrance of the valley. After arriving at the scenic area, we played for 4 hours, but our car arrived early, so we played for 5 hours. We were still able to be sent to the high-speed rail station, and our luggage could also be placed in the bus, which was more convenient than driving ourselves. The scenic area has hot water, and we brought instant noodles as lunch, which was very delicious at the foot of the snow mountain. Unexpectedly, the powder package of the KFC shrimp noodles from the Chengdu supermarket was spicy! There are restaurants on the way down from the scenic area, right next to the walkway, very visible. The only drawback of the one-day tour is that we had to go to the high-speed rail station at a specified time because the driver had to pick up passengers. We waited for an hour at the high-speed rail station before the train left, but that hour was not wasted. We rested and had dinner at the service center opposite the high-speed rail station (the high-speed rail station was extremely crowded, but the service center was empty, we could sit down, and there was hot water). Some people on Xiaohongshu recommended Chengdu beef noodles, the beef was spicy, the kids didn't eat it, and the noodles were a bit hard to describe, like they were overcooked but still a bit hard, possibly due to the high altitude and insufficient water temperature.
D5 Panda One-Day Tour
The panda house should be visited early, because the pandas are all sleeping by noon. Since we couldn't get up, we took a taxi to the panda house at 9 am. The scenic area has two gates, the South Gate and the West Gate. Initially, we didn't plan to see Hua Hua, we just wanted to see the panda cubs. We went straight to the Xingxing maternity ward through the West Gate to see the young pandas. We waited until 10 am for the two cute little ones to open for business. The panda cubs only operate for 1 hour, and I watched for 1 hour, which was really healing. When I came out, the nearby pandas had all gone to sleep. The pandas in the southern area were still operating. Then we wandered around until the afternoon, it was still early, so we queued at Villa No. 6 for more than an hour to see Hua Hua for 4 minutes.
Watching pandas early is actually enough for half a day, we wandered around all day because there was nowhere else we particularly wanted to go. Plus, we came late in the morning and didn't see the pandas climbing trees. We kept waiting to see them come down at the end, but later on, the cats in the western area were collected early, and in the end, we still didn't see them, leaving a regret for next time. The biggest impression is that the personalities of the cats are really different. The ones in the western area are generally quiet, love climbing trees, and there are staff members holding signs reminding not to talk loudly. The first cat I saw was on the highest tree, not moving and sleeping. Later, I learned from the introduction that she was rescued from the wild. The ones in the southern area are generally more business-minded, trying to get closer to people, amidst the noisy crowd, nothing happens.
